Cosmological CPT Violation and CMB Polarization Measurements

In this paper we study the possibility of testing Charge-Parity-Time Reversal (CPT) symmetry with cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. We consider two kinds of Chern-Simons (CS) term, electromagnetic CS term and gravitational CS term, and study their effects on the CMB polarization power spectra in detail. By combining current CMB polarization measurements, the seven-year WMAP, BOOMERanG 2003 and BICEP observations, we obtain a tight constraint on the rotation angle $\Delta\alpha=-2.28\pm1.02$ deg ($1\,\sigma$), indicating a $2.2\,\sigma$ detection of the CPT violation. Here, we particularly take the systematic errors of CMB measurements into account. After adding the QUaD polarization data, the constraint becomes $-1.34<\Delta\alpha<0.82$ deg at 95% confidence level. When comparing with the effect of electromagnetic CS term, the gravitational CS term could only generate TB and EB power spectra with much smaller amplitude. Therefore, the induced parameter $\epsilon$ can not be constrained from the current polarization data. Furthermore, we study the capabilities of future CMB measurements, Planck and CMBPol, on the constraints of $\Delta\alpha$ and $\epsilon$. We find that the constraint of $\Delta\alpha$ can be significantly improved by a factor of 15. Therefore, if this rotation angle effect can not be taken into account properly, the constraints of cosmological parameters will be biased obviously. For the gravitational CS term, the future Planck data still can not constrain $\epsilon$ very well, if the primordial tensor perturbations are small, $r <0.1$. We need the more accurate CMBPol experiment to give better constraint on $\epsilon$.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in JCA

Probing for cosmological parameters with LAMOST measurement

In this paper we study the sensitivity of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) project to the determination of cosmological parameters, employing the Monte Carlo Markov Chains (MCMC) method. For comparison, we first analyze the constraints on cosmological parameters from current observational data, including WMAP, SDSS and SN Ia. We then simulate the 3D matter power spectrum data expected from LAMOST, together with the simulated CMB data for PLANCK and the SN Ia from 5-year Supernovae Legacy Survey (SNLS). With the simulated data, we investigate the future improvement on cosmological parameter constraints, emphasizing the role of LAMOST. Our results show the potential of LAMOST in probing for the cosmological parameters, especially in constraining the equation-of-state (EoS) of the dark energy and the neutrino mass.Comment: 7 pages and 3 figures. Replaced with version accepted for publication in JCA

Generating an entangled coherent state of two cavity modes in a three-level \Lambda - type atomic system

In this paper, we present a scheme to generate an entangled coherent state by considering a three-level \Lambda - type atom interacting with a two-mode cavity driven by classical fields. The two-mode entangled coherent state can be obtained under large detuning conditions. Considering the cavity decay, an analytical solution is deduced.Comment: 3 figure

Probing Dynamics of Dark Energy with Supernova, Galaxy Clustering and the Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations

Using the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method we perform a global analysis constraining the dynamics of dark energy in light of the supernova (Riess "Gold" samples), galaxy clustering (SDSS 3D power spectra and SDSS lyman-\alpha forest information) and the latest three-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations. We have allowed the dark energy equation of state to get across -1 and pay particular attention to the effects when incorrectly neglecting dark energy perturbations. We find the parameter space of dynamical dark energy is now well constrained and neglecting dark energy perturbations will make the parameter space significantly smaller. Dynamical dark energy model where the equation of state crosses -1 is mildly favored and the standard \LambdaCDM model is still a good fit to the current data.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures Revtex

Probing Inflation and Dark Energy with Current Cosmological Observations

It is commonly believed that our Universe has experienced two different stages of accelerated expansion. The early stage is known as inflation and the current acceleration is driven by dark energy. Observing inflation and dark energy dynamics are among the most important aspects of the current cosmological research. In this paper we make a first detailed probe of possible degeneracies between dynamical inflation and dark energy in light of current cosmological observations. We find the inclusion of inflation and dark energy parameters together make the parameter spaces broader, but interestingly deviation from scale-invariant primordial spectrum is sightly more favored by current cosmological observations when one marginalizes over dynamical dark energy models.Comment: 7 pages, 4 eps figures Revtex

Spin-Rotation Symmetry Breaking in the Superconducting State of CuxBi2Se3

Spontaneous symmetry breaking is an important concept for understanding physics ranging from the elementary particles to states of matter. For example, the superconducting state breaks global gauge symmetry, and unconventional superconductors can break additional symmetries. In particular, spin rotational symmetry is expected to be broken in spin-triplet superconductors. However, experimental evidence for such symmetry breaking has not been conclusively obtained so far in any candidate compounds. Here, by 77Se nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, we show that spin rotation symmetry is spontaneously broken in the hexagonal plane of the electron-doped topological insulator Cu0.3Bi2Se3 below the superconducting transition temperature Tc=3.4 K. Our results not only establish spin-triplet superconductivity in this compound, but may also serve to lay a foundation for the research of topological superconductivity

Scale dependence of the primordial spectrum from combining the three-year WMAP, Galaxy Clustering, Supernovae, and Lyman-alpha forests

We probe the scale dependence of the primordial spectrum in the light of the three-year WMAP (WMAP3) alone and WMAP3 in combination with the other cosmological observations such as galaxy clustering and Type Ia Supernova (SNIa). We pay particular attention to the combination with the Lyman $\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) forest. Different from the first-year WMAP (WMAP1), WMAP3's preference on the running of the scalar spectral index on the large scales is now fairly independent of the low CMB multipoles $\ell$. A combination with the galaxy power spectrum from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) prefers a negative running to larger than 2$\sigma$, regardless the presence of low $\ell$ CMB ($2\le \ell \le 23$) or not. On the other hand if we focus on the Power Law $\Lambda$CDM cosmology with only six parameters (matter density $\Omega_m h^2$, baryon density $\Omega_b h^2$, Hubble Constant $H_0$, optical depth $\tau$, the spectral index, $n_s$, and the amplitude, $A_s$, of the scalar perturbation spectrum) when we drop the low $\ell$ CMB contributions WMAP3 is consistent with the Harrison-Zel'dovich-Peebles scale-invariant spectrum ($n_s=1$ and no tensor contributions) at $\sim 1\sigma$. When assuming a simple power law primordial spectral index or a constant running, in case one drops the low $\ell$ contributions ($2\le \ell \le 23$) WMAP3 is consistent with the other observations better, such as the inferred value of $\sigma_8$. We also find, using a spectral shape with a minimal extension of the running spectral index model, LUQAS$+$ CROFT Ly$\alpha$ and SDSS Ly$\alpha$ exhibit somewhat different preference on the spectral shape.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures Revtex

The High Redshift Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect

In this paper we rely on the quasar (QSO) catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Six (SDSS DR6) of about one million photometrically selected QSOs to compute the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect at high redshift, aiming at constraining the behavior of the expansion rate and thus the behaviour of dark energy at those epochs. This unique sample significantly extends previous catalogs to higher redshifts while retaining high efficiency in the selection algorithm. We compute the auto-correlation function (ACF) of QSO number density from which we extract the bias and the stellar contamination. We then calculate the cross-correlation function (CCF) between QSO number density and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature fluctuations in different subsamples: at high z>1.5 and low z<1.5 redshifts and for two different choices of QSO in a conservative and in a more speculative analysis. We find an overall evidence for a cross-correlation different from zero at the 2.7\sigma level, while this evidence drops to 1.5\sigma at z>1.5. We focus on the capabilities of the ISW to constrain the behaviour of the dark energy component at high redshift both in the \LambdaCDM and Early Dark Energy cosmologies, when the dark energy is substantially unconstrained by observations. At present, the inclusion of the ISW data results in a poor improvement compared to the obtained constraints from other cosmological datasets. We study the capabilities of future high-redshift QSO survey and find that the ISW signal can improve the constraints on the most important cosmological parameters derived from Planck CMB data, including the high redshift dark energy abundance, by a factor \sim 1.5.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, and 7 table

Cross-correlating the \u3b3-ray Sky with Catalogs of Galaxy Clusters

We report the detection of a cross-correlation signal between {\it Fermi} Large Area Telescope diffuse gamma-ray maps and catalogs of clusters. In our analysis, we considered three different catalogs: WHL12, redMaPPer and PlanckSZ. They all show a positive correlation with different amplitudes, related to the average mass of the objects in each catalog, which also sets the catalog bias. The signal detection is confirmed by the results of a stacking analysis. The cross-correlation signal extends to rather large angular scales, around 1 degree, that correspond, at the typical redshift of the clusters in these catalogs, to a few to tens of Mpc, i.e. the typical scale-length of the large scale structures in the Universe. Most likely this signal is contributed by the cumulative emission from AGNs associated to the filamentary structures that converge toward the high peaks of the matter density field in which galaxy clusters reside. In addition, our analysis reveals the presence of a second component, more compact in size and compatible with a point-like emission from within individual clusters. At present, we cannot distinguish between the two most likely interpretations for such a signal, i.e. whether it is produced by AGNs inside clusters or if it is a diffuse gamma-ray emission from the intra-cluster medium. We argue that this latter, intriguing, hypothesis might be tested by applying this technique to a low redshift large mass cluster sample

Evaluation of machine-learning methods for ligand-based virtual screening

Machine-learning methods can be used for virtual screening by analysing the structural characteristics of molecules of known (in)activity, and we here discuss the use of kernel discrimination and naive Bayesian classifier (NBC) methods for this purpose. We report a kernel method that allows the processing of molecules represented by binary, integer and real-valued descriptors, and show that it is little different in screening performance from a previously described kernel that had been developed specifically for the analysis of binary fingerprint representations of molecular structure. We then evaluate the performance of an NBC when the training-set contains only a very few active molecules. In such cases, a simpler approach based on group fusion would appear to provide superior screening performance, especially when structurally heterogeneous datasets are to be processed